REPUTEDLY the first motor bus in Yorkshire was photographed with its passengers at the start of its regular service between Cowling and Kildwick Railway Station in May, 1905.
The journey took a quarter of an hour each way. The downhill run from Cowling to Kildwick cost threepence; uphill from Kildwick to Cowling fourpence.
This was an initiative of Ezra Laycock, Cowling postman, coal merchant, waggonette proprietor and parcel agent, who had heard about motor buses in London.
A party from Cowling had accompanied him to the capital when he collected the vehicle from the works of Milnes-Daimler Ltd, making a leisurely homeward journey while being "greatly admired" en route. One of their number, a weaving overlooker, gave minstrel turns to entertain them in their nightly lodgings.
The motor bus made a triumphal entry into Cowling, where crowds "gaped after it in open-eyed and admiring wonderment". It could accommodate 18 passengers, plus an extra two beside the driver. "It is built something like a tram," reported the West Yorkshire Pioneer, "but rather smaller in size and the top of the car is used for parcels."
Ezra Laycock and his partner, William Stephenson of Skipton, were soon running another service over the Lancashire border to connect with Colne trams at Laneshaw Bridge. Their bus could also be hired for private excursions, like the Croft Mills warpdressers trip to Burnley and Hebden Bridge.
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